looking for a decent DVD kit...

[DA]

anyone know of any decent dvd kits (ide)?
i've been told to stay away from 10x cause they're hardware locked so you can't play vids from abroad (how true is this ?)

cheers for any help

[kongkong]

do we need a "KIT"?

a decent CPU/Video Card combo plus a DVD drive should be enough, to my best knowledge. if you have an old cpu, you then probably need a decode-card, but it is pretty cheap too.

[AuraEdge]

I have a 10x and they are not locked. My friend said the same thing, But i heard the opposite (the standard wasnt set up until recently so some 6x drives are region locked, and all 10x arent).
I saw that on the Pioneer sight. The best kit, in my opinion is the Pioneer 10x/40x (~$90) & a RealMagic Hollywood Plus (~$60)
This is better, and cheaper than most other kits in my opinion, and even if the are region locked, Pioneer has a program that either unlocks them or makes them region 1, not sure which.
Im using this combo right now, and couldnt be happier.

[JW310]

Actually, all DVD drives made in 2000 are required to be region locked. However, in some cases there are third-party firmware upgrades that will allow the drive to be "region-free". The Pioneer 10x/40x tray-load has a region-free firmware upgrade for it, the slot-load version of it does not. So any recent Pioneer DVD drive will be region locked, whether it's a 6x or a 10x.

But IMO, AuraEdge's suggestion of the Pioneer 10x/40x and the Hollywood Plus decoder card would be the best to get.

JW